New Smyrna Beach will soon weigh $50M marina village

Wednesday

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Over the decades a city-owned riverfront property has been home to a water treatment plant, then government offices, then a science center and a parking lot.

A developer could soon transform the high-profile property on the North Causeway once again, this time into a $50 million boaters' haven. A site plan and rezoning request is expected to go before the city's Planning & Zoning Board March 3.

Mark Pernell, who owns North Causeway Marine and is a neighbor to the city parcel at 160 N. Causeway, is working out details for the final site plan for Coronado Island Marine Village.

The marina resort village proposal fronting the Indian River is five buildings on nearly 7 acres, site plans show. Inside those buildings, plans call for various retail shopping, including a boat and ship store, a 180-seat restaurant and lounge and roughly 200,000 square feet of dry-rack boat storage for 160 vessels in three separate, four-story buildings. Plans also call for a 66-slip marina, a public boardwalk along the riverfront and a 5-story, 120-room hotel.

Pernell said the possibility of a small grocery such as a Whole Foods is still on the table as part of what would be the hotel.

"It's hard to get all those elements in there," Pernell said. "But we're still trying."

Hotelier a secret

Pernell said plans are largely ready for review, with two notable exceptions. He could still alter the docks configuration and while a rectangular space in the site plan is allocated for a five-story hotel, the hotel brand name and design remains a mystery.

"We're working with a couple different flags," Pernell said in his marine supply shop last week, hinting at some recognizable potential investment partners. "I can't disclose names yet."

Evolving use

According to a 2004 study of the site that sits 1.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, development of the causeway began in the late 1800s linking downtown New Smyrna Beach and the fledgling residential and commercial areas of Coronado Beach.

The chunk of land at 160 N. Causeway was once home to the city's wastewater treatment plant. But when new environmental regulations came down banning treatment plants near the ecologically sensitive Indian River, the Utilities Commission moved the plant west of Interstate 95.

Since then, the waterfront was designated a brownfield, a label that encourages redevelopment on a site which has real or even perceived environmental issues. Eligible businesses can qualify for tax refunds, credits and incentive programs for creating jobs and cleaning up the site on the state level. Federal dollars and no-interest loans are also available.

A remaining building on the city site became city offices. After that, the city leased the site to the Marine Discovery Center, which has since moved across the causeway.

Voters then approved finding a new use for the site. The city entertained pitches in 2015.

Pernell's winning proposal was the last of those, which also included a waterfront restaurant and grill, a Delta Queen riverboat that would have been a floating hotel off the site and a Clearwater-based firm's proposal to build a 29,000-square-foot Publix there.

City commissioners agreed to sell the four-acre waterfront site for $5.1 million. One condition: Start construction by December 2018.

Requirements also include at least 200 parking spaces, a public boardwalk, a combined retail and restaurant use of 25,000 square feet and a maximum building heights of 50 feet for the hotel and 60 feet for dry boat storage structures. Pernell is expected to ask for a nine-foot increase in the height limit to accommodate his design for one of the buildings, as well as a rezoning.

An eye on environment

The developer was also required to hold one public workshop with the City Commission prior to submitting the rezoning application for the property, as well as one neighborhood meeting. Pernell, who has run North Causeway Marine for about 15 years, said he's held several with residents and business owners.

"Most were concerned with a canyon effect going down the causeway, because the buildings were very large," Pernell said. "So I kind of went back to the drawing board to make it more eye-appealing for the community."

Pernell was able to reduce the footprints of the buildings by dividing them. He also eliminated a 2-story planned parking structure below the hotel.

"Plus, we were able to open up viewing corridors so you're on the causeway looking through, versus having all building," Pernell said.

Sally Gillespie is co-founder of the citizen-led resident's coalition and Vision Alliance, a group that pairs community members with the commercial sector to gain perspective on both parties' interests. She thinks Pernell has made a good-faith effort to gain community feedback and incorporate it into the design for the property, but she is eager to get answers to lingering questions.

"The issue of funding, since this is city-owned land, has a particular interest to residents," Gillespie said. "This is a huge project. ... We really want to know: Where's the money?

"It would be unfortunate if the city sold the land but the project stalled due to lack of funds," Gillespie said. "We know that has happened with (other) projects."

The contract with the city contains incentives to get the project completed within three years. If not, the developer will provide payments in lieu of city property taxes that would have been received had it been completed, with payments based on the city’s millage and estimated value.

Gillespie also said the coalition has concerns about the density and impact on the North Causeway, also strained by the Riverwalk Condominiums project under way across the street. One Riverwalk condo is built, a second is in progress, and the next phase of the project — a site plan for five more condominiums — is set for Plan Review Committee discussion this Monday.

In earlier talks about the project, citizens also raised questions about whether the docks were too close to two small islands used by birds as rookeries.

While Pernell still needs technical permitting from state agencies including the Department of Environmental Protection, the St. Johns Water Management District and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, he said he had already gone through the permitting process to expand his marina.

"We weren't going to affect the rookeries, no matter what," Pernell said, adding he has redesigned the docks and feels confident he can satisfy all the environmental requirements.

The New Smyrna Beach planning board hearing will at 6:30 p.m. March 3 at City Hall, 210 Sams Ave.

"It's a massive project," Pernell said. "It's been a long process and we're trying diligently to make it work."

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